Molecular motors are ubiquitous in biological matter where they are responsible for the intracellular motions and catalysis that make life possible.
The idea of mimicking nature that lead to the rise of nanotechnology following the lecture of Richard Feynman[1]} while already prolific, still faces the challenge to create synthetic nano-motors.
For that reason the design and properties of nano-motors and nano-swimmers is an active field of research[2]}, [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]}, [7]}, [8]}, [9]}, [10]}, [11]}, [12]}, [13]}, [14]}, [15]}, [16]}, [17]}, [18]}, [19]}, [20]}, [21]}, [22]}, [23]}, [24]}, [25]}, [26]}, [27]}, [28]}, [29]}, [30]}, [31]} with number of applications and theoretical perspectives expected.
The applications range from medicine to engineering, sensing, the control of transport mechanisms, crystallization, hydrophobicity, catalyze and actuation to name a few.
Important theoretical perspectives also appear due to the connection with out of equilibrium statistical physics and biophysics, leading to a fascinating new field of research called
active matter[32]}, [33]}, [34]}, [35]} that develops rapidly.
Synthetic molecular motors are however still relatively complex while the
creation of simpler motors would be of large interest, permitting to produce them more easily and in larger numbers, increasing moreover their stability.
However the creation of nano-motors face a number of difficulties including Purcell's theorem[36]}, [37]}, [38]}, [39]}, [40]}, [41]}, [42]}, [43]}, [44]}, [45]}, [46]}, [47]}, [48]}, [49]}, [50]}, [51]}, [52]}, [53]}, [54]} due to the two following main physical reasons:
Brownian incessant bombardment of the motor hinders directionality in the motor's motion, while the huge increase of the relative importance of the viscosity at the nanoscale, hinders the motor's motion itself.
